When did Rod Stewart jump the shark?

Blondes Have More Fun

 

1973

 

Kenny Everett’s to blame for his mega paradies of That awful sexy song - rods cred was shot from then

 

Summer of 1971, and Maggie May was everywhere. This surprised a lot of people, including Rod, who hadn't expected much to come of it. Summer of 1972 and Rod releases Never a Dull Moment, with You Wear It Well as the lead single. That song was basically Maggie May rearranged... same style, same feel, and not really better than MM. Never a Dull Moment wasn't really that interesting of an album either. In the grand scheme of things, it amounted to more of the same, and I think the slide started from there. Just my take on it.

 

Smiler.

 

I said Smiler before reading your post, but I think you make a compelling case and Greil Marcus would probably agree with you as well.

 

Never a Dull Moment was the last great solo album. After that, even most of his singles fall short with me. I'll give a waiver to Young Turks because it's such a fantastic tune and Rod sings it so well. I also liked the Vagabond Heart singles, but that may be because I heard those tunes constantly when I was around 11 or 12 years old. I really loved Broken Arrow, Rhythm of My Heart, and The Motown Song back then. Also, his Unplugged set was fantastic! It's a shame he didn't follow that with a proper return to form on new material. I think I prefer the version of Handbags and Gladrags on that album to the original. His take on the Waits classic Tom Traubert's Blues is also fantastic.

 

For me it's like this:

Rod Stewart + Ronnie Wood = great!
Rod Stewart - Ronnie Wood = meh.

 

After Faces, Rod was just making money. Nothing wrong with that. It was also the 'Disco' era.

'Smiler' was good, I still like that album. 'Blonds Have More Fun' was good, I liked it. After BHMF... so so. He totally lost me on the 'American Songbook' stuff... or whatever it was.

Saw his concert at the racetrack in Singapore, front and center, in '87 or so. I was 12' to 14' away from him the whole show, I could see the fillings in his teeth, lol. No real barrier, just a little 2.5' high pipe metal fence (that was it - no one gets out of control in Singapore - they don't put up with it there.), and the home made stage was about 3 feet off the ground. Great 2.5 hr show too, his voice was perfect. Faces organ player Ian Mclagan was playing organ too. They played a lot of faces songs. A very enjoyable concert.

 

He has jumped a few sharks in his career and all the richer for it.

 

Never. In his way, he’s tried to stay hip and relevant. He’s had a fine career.

 

This probably seems late to a lot of people here, but, I think he made a bit of a comeback when he sang with Beck on People Get Ready, so I'll say Downtown Train. At this point he joined Bryan Adams in making Rock contemporary. Rock is supposed to be dangerous and his rendition of Downtown Train and everything after has been complacent.

 

His last moment of sustained greatness was "Never A Dull Moment", but...
I'd say he released good album, with occasional great tracks throughout the 70's...

So, my cut-off would be last one I'm up for is "Blondes Have More Fun" (1978) & first one where I'm out is "Foolish Behaviour" (1980)

 

The Faces were perhaps the drunkest band I ever saw in concert rivaled only by an early 70's Kinks show.

 

Smiler was half good, Atlantic Crossing was mostly bad.

 

Agree with those who say things changed for the worse after Never A Dull Moment, though he had some good individual songs afterwards (Killing Of Georgie, I Was Only Joking, Tonight’s The Night etc)

 

I don’t think he ever had a real jump the shark moment. Closest is probably some of those dodgy videos

 

The rot set in with Smiler and he never came out of the tailspin. The production was one aspect over time but it was mostly due to mediocre to downright awful songwriting by him. Everything that made the vibe of his first four solo records and that run of Faces records great was just lost.

 

That’s funny

 

I’m not sure about shark jumping, but for me Rod’s stuff with Jeff Beck, Faces, and his solo career during the Mercury era is maybe one of the greatest discographies in rock history, and it wasn’t very many years it was accomplished in. So I give him a pass on whatever followed on, I’m not that familiar with it after a certain point.

So for me after Smiler I guess I was pretty much done. But there is so much great music up to there. Some amazing records.

 

Somewhere between Infatuation and covering Sometimes When We Touch

(But, hey, he's accomplished plenty in a lifetime.)

 

For me, his last solid solo LP is "Never A Dull Moment", although "Smiler" and "Atlantic Crosing" both have their moments. And "Tonight's the Night" is a great single, but generally speaking, "A Night on the Town" is the beginning of his, shall we say, lesser period. And of course, all of those Faces albums are great!!

 

Smiler ended it for me.

 

After Never A Dull Moment. With Faces, after Ooh La La.

 

never...he adapted.